BatIM Steps of the Survivor

Chapter Twenty-One

The looming threat that was the talk with Joey still hung heavily over her head, and Boris's when he heard about it, but nothing seemed to result of the prior meeting as May became June, and June slowly crawled toward its end. Both slowly began to relax and even forget that much anything had been said.

Summer vacation quickly proved to be an immense benefit to the cause of the revolution, as much more time and energy could be focused on each individual member of the group, as well as time to relax and just enjoy each other's presences, talk about their lives and the past they longed to return to. Jade assured them that they all would when they got through this revolution, or as close to the past as any of them could possibly get, which likely would be fairly different, since the years that had stacked on before Jade even met her fellow revolutionaries was pretty much her entire lifetime, maybe even longer.

The time Jade spent that wasn't in the studio was now spent trying to learn how to increase her physical strength, as she began to learn that running back and forth would only get the group so far. At least their stamina and running speed was coming along excellently, and Jade couldn't help but feel proud of her friends' progress. She gained quite a few ideas with just a shred or so of research, and asking for advice on how to properly do so, she began to form a better plan on how to increase everyone's muscle strength, since a fight wasn't just about stamina.

On the rare day that she took a day to do any form of relaxing, only since Boris insisted that she was working herself to the bone, she took him out walking to the park. While this was still quite the effort to get there, it wasn't their usual strenuous exercises, so this had to do.

The blazing summer sun roared over them, beams of heat making both feel almost miserably warm, so much so that even Boris took off his sweater for once and tied it around his waist so he wouldn't feel like he was overheating. It was lucky that the trail on the park was mostly covered by trees and the shade they provided, and was further cooled by the river's breeze next to it.

Boris seemed to marvel at just how green and full of life the plants were. "How do the plants seem to do so well when it's so warm?"

"I'm not too sure, maybe it's something to do with all the thunderstorms summer seems to bring," Jade replied with a bit of a shrug. "Mom used to always complain about the grass growing three feet after a good rain."

"Does she not anymore? Or does it not do that?"

"It still does, I just don't stick around to hear her complain anymore."

The duo fell back into silence, listening to the sounds of their rhythmic footsteps on the thin gravel trail and the ambience of the river to their left.

"Oh, Jade! Didn't expect to see you here." A familiar voice spoke up ahead of them on their trail.

The duo looked to the source of the voice to see none other than Henry, accompanied by Rosa. Boris's eyes lit up in excitement and he ran over to him while Jade remained where she was in shock.

"Henry?" She questioned disbelievingly.

"You don't have to sound so surprised," he teased, petting Boris, who had latched onto him and seemed to very much appreciate the affection being provided. "How's summer vacation so far? You relaxing as you should be?"

"Um... yeah," she lied, though quietly, her chest burning in shame for even this small action. Boris looked back at her with a look that only intensified this feeling. She decided to try and remedy it with at least one truth. "It's pretty nice not having to worry about school, too... but I'm nervous about starting high school."